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ObjectVideo makes headway with licensing

RESTON, Va.—ObjectVideo made progress in February with its licensing efforts. The video analytics provider announced that it has settled a lawsuit against Sony and signed licensing agreements with both Sony and Tyco’s American Dynamics.

OV announced on Feb. 8 that it and Sony “settled all outstanding claims” and that Sony had signed the licensing agreement.

That announcement came one week after OV announced a licensing agreement with American Dynamics, which was not among the companies sued by OV.

OV CEO Raul Fernandez declined to comment on the pending lawsuit, but he said the agreement with American Dynamics is the first of what he expects to be several similar agreements.

He said there are “several negotiations ongoing [with manufacturers], but they’re not litigation-based negotiations.” Rather, he said, they’re manufacturers who have approached OV because “they’ve looked inward at their technology to see if there is a technology overlap with some of our patents.”

This is OV’s preferred way to “approach licensing discussions but we are prepared to take another [legal] path if necessary.”
Fernandez said that the fact that Tyco, a “multibillion-dollar, multinational, multiproduct line company that’s been in business a long time, recognizes our innovations … strengthens our case [for pursuing patent licensing]. … It’s terrific for us.”

Warren Brown, vice president of product management for Tyco Security Products, said in a prepared statement that American Dynamics is developing a broad range of video analytics-enabled products. “As part of our pre-launch process, it was important to ensure that the growth we expect from these products would not be negatively affected by legal issues. … This agreement with ObjectVideo gives us that certainty, allowing us to focus on the more important tasks of building great products that delight our customers.”

Asked how business is going, Fernandez said OV, which is privately held, had a good year with growth in its core software business and growth and backlog in its services side.